Dining Days Committee Info (Ways and Means)

mai hamoudeh

Dining Days Checklist

In late August/early September, find out dates of all other school events so that the Dining Days are not in the same week. Avoid dates near holidays or school breaks.  Plot out proposed Dining Day dates and locations. 

Contact restaurants for dining days and propose dates as early as possible

  1. Restaurants from the past and contact info
    1. Subway (Franklin Farm) — [email protected] (Sol)
      1. They require flyers be handed in
      2. Pays 15% with flyer
      3. While we don’t make a lot of money here, we want to maintain a good relationship with Sol and use his restaurant for other events.
    2. Vocelli Pizza (Herndon South) — [email protected] (Randy Fox)
      1. No flyers needed
      2. Paid us 15% for ALL sales All day
      3. We are doing this over 2 nights to spread out the volume (k-3; 4-6)
      4. Big money maker
    3. Chick-Fil-A (Dulles) — [email protected] (Rebekah Knable)
      1. No flyers needed; they provide the flyers and stickers; and Cow will come to school day of event
      2. Pays 15%
    4. McDonalds (Greenbriar) — [email protected] (Judy Popov)
      1. No flyers needed; they provide flyers and stickers
      2. We are doing this over 2 nights to spread out the volume (k-3; 4-6)
      3. Sliding scale payout – 10%-15% depending on sales
      4. Big money maker
    5. Baskin Robbins (Franklin Farm) – Wassim Ghali ([email protected])
      1. No flyers needed; need to plan for 50/50 raffle and cake raffle
      2. Popular event; decent money mainly from the 50/50 ticket pre-sales
    6. Dogfish Head Alehouse (Greenbriar) – [email protected] (Joe Hospital)
      1. This is proposed for the spring; no flyers needed; they require that you make an event out of it with raffles, etc.
    7. Sweet Frog – contact left the company; need to call store
      1. We did a Sweet Frog night once, but it was hard because there is limited room to eat and to wait in line. It rained the night we did it, and people were waiting outside in line to get in to purchase their ice cream.  Some people left due to rain.
  2. Other restaurants considered but did not use (yet):
    1. Cici’s Pizza – only pays 10%
    2. Red Robin – only pays 10%
    3. Santini’s – no one would ever get back to us
    4. Longhorn steakhouse – Monica Mohr has a contact there ; seems a bit far to us

Once each date is finalized, let the PTA president know the date/location so they can be added to PTA calendar

For each event, we do the following to promote the event:

  1. Flyer in Wednesday folder
    1. Design flyer (if not provided by restaurant) at least 2 weeks in advance
    2. Get flyer approved by Mr. D’Amato & restaurant contact
    3. Make copies of flyer the Monday or Tuesday prior to the Wed. folder and put in teacher mailboxes
    4. Should go in Wednesday folder that is closest to the event date
    5. For McDonalds and Chic-Fil-A – also put stickers in teacher mailboxes
  2. KIT email
    1. Draft KIT email
    2. Have KIT approved by PTA president & Mr. D’Amato
    3. Let PTA president know the date to send it out (usually 1-2 days prior to the event)
  3. Script for morning news
    1. Send draft along with KIT draft
    2. Have approved by Mr. D’Amato
    3. Make sure it is read the morning of the event
  4. Facebook & Twitter posts
    1. Provide PTA president with copy for a facebook and twitter post for the day before and day of the event
  5. PTA website
    1. Make sure the website mentions the event

Volunteer Sign ups (McDonald’s, Baskin Robbins, Chic Fil A, Dogfish)

  1. If parent/teacher volunteers are needed – Christy Poole helped set up a MySignUp website for people to sign up for slots
    1. Volunteers are usually needed for McDonalds’ (to help with attendance sign in sheets), Baskin Robbins (raffle sales for parents & teacher signups for scooping)
    2. Contact Christy Poole about setting up the site – what jobs, time slots, and number of volunteers needed per shift

50/50 Tickets: (mainly Baskin Robbins and maybe Dogfish)

  1. For Baskin Robbins (and potentially Dogfish Head) – we also sell 50/50 raffle tickets and do pre-sales.

Pre-sales require the following:

  1. Flyer designed (revision to prior versions is all you need); Renee Clark can provide older versions   ($1 per ticket;  6 tickets for $5)
  2. Put flyer in Wednesday folders ~2 weeks prior to event
  3. Make a pre-order end date that is several days prior to event
  4. Check 50/50 folder every other day in the office (next to Pam McCain’s desk)
  5. Write out 50/50 raffle tickets for each ticket orders
  6. All pre-order sales have been typed into an Excel spreadsheet – with ticket numbers, name, phone number, classroom is also a good idea – Kirsten Young set up a great spreadsheet and we just add new tabs for new events
  7. Put ½ of the ticket in barrel for drawing; put the other half stapled to entry form and keep in alphabetical order for parent pick up at event.

Day of Event:

  1. Bring pre-ordered tickets to event
  2. Bring large pretzel barrels (from storage) to event to put tickets in
  3. Bring pre-order forms/tickets
  4. Set up another barrel for ice cream cake raffle
  5. Small signs can go on each barrel (Renee Clark can provide prior versions)
  6. Have parent volunteers man the table to sell onsite